The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-03-26


greatest preacher of the nineteenth
century. He was, to the last, hard
worker he was unreservedly conse-
Grated to his work he stood on what
he believed to be the right side of all
questions, and he had the courage to
follow his convictions and his thinking
to the end. When he went to the Ply
mouth pulpit, more than forty years ago,
he lifted up the standard of liberty, of
justice, of brotherhood, of the rights of
man, and of spiritual and rational
Christianity; and from these great
principles he never for one moment,
not even in the darkest hours, ever
wavered.
1t meant something, thirty or forty
years ago, to stand for any broad inter-
probation Of such principles but in the
days when slavery rested upon the
Bible, and had beneath it the Constitu-
ton, and was enthroned in political
power, Mr.. Beecher declared himself on
the side of liberty and opposed to hui
man bondage; he declared himself the
friend of the dark race, and with all the
powerful eloquence Of justice and love
he pleaded for the rights of the poor
slave. And when the inevitable war of
the rebellion came he stood for the
Union, and in the darkest days tainted
not. And when the wealth and caste
and aristocracy of England, and through
them the sympathies Of the common
people, were largely on the side of the
South, this lover of his country, this
lover of liberty and justice, this friend
of the black man, had the courage to
stand up in Liverpool, and London, and
Edinburgh, and boldly defend his coun-
try and plead for the slave; and he had
the heaven-inspired power to turn the
raging tides of thought and sympathy
to his own side. What other man
what other hundred men, could have
done what he did p? We know the
strength and prejudice Of the English
mind when aroused. was in great
political meeting in Manchester last
summer when the excitement ran high,
and was almost afraid to be there, let
alone to speak; but Mr.. Beecher faced
all opposition and carried the press and
carried the masses over to the side of
his struggling country, and never did
the power of great personality and a
divine oratory achieve greater victory.
Brother Beecher felt that in those trying
hours God was with him, and God was
with him; and men who have any mem
DRY and who are capable Of rising above
political littleness and religious big
otry do not forget the debt we all owe
to this great and good friend of man
and friend of liberty. 1t took the ortho-
dox priests and those high in the church
to plat the crown of thorns and place
it upon the head of the suffering Christ;
and it takes cold orthodox Congrega-
tional minister to refuse sympathy to
the dying Beecher.
The deep sense of divine and human
love and justice, and the manly cour-
age that made Mr.. Beecher the cham
pion Of liberty and human rights and
the friend Of the oppressed race, were
elements of power in his great ministry.
He carried the same breadth and SYM
pathy into the pulpit; and hence his
religious life and teachings could not
be less than large and generous. He did
more than any dozen other men to lift
up and free the pulpit from narrow
conventionalities, and to give to preach
ing wider range of discussion and in
fuence. He was in no sense a priest
cared very little for the letter Of the
law, or for forms and ceremonies but
he was, in the higher sense, prophet,
a teacher, preacher and his long
ministry of fifty years was instinct
with the life of his day. Slavery, seces-
sion, polygamy, temperance, wealth,
learning, labor and capital, the rights of
the poor, and the rights of women and
children, were all familiar themes in
the Plymouth pulpit. There was no
evil so high-so enthroned in power
and position, but feared his tongue and
pen and the poorest laboring man,
and the orphan upon the street were
sure of his sympathy and support.
And it was entirely natural that this
greatest of all preachers should have
been progressive in his beliefs. And
this is the objectionable offense in the
eyes Of the orthodox churches that he
grew away from his inherited faith and
from the creeds of the past and that he
had the courage and the candor to say
so. He says of himself: 81 have never
preached what 1 did not believe; l
never asked myself whether to preach
a truth did believe would be popular
or unpopular" He could say, 81 have
preached Righteousness to the great
congregation have not refrsined my
lips, o Lord, thou knowest." He stood,
prophet-like, before man and God, be-
fore earth and heaven, to catch and in
terpret and translate into life and prin-
ciple and duty, the great truths of reve-